SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A Walmart erupted into chaos and at least four people were hurt Sunday when a man rammed an Oldsmobile Cutlass through the entrance, then attacked an employee and shoppers with a blunt object, police said.

At 11:15 a.m., the unidentified driver in the red, two-door Cutlass Salon struck two automobiles in the Walmart Supercenter parking lot in East San Jose and then crashed through the pharmacy and market entrance. He continued a few dozen feet before colliding with a beer display. After leaving his car, he picked up an object inside the store and assaulted people, seriously injuring at least one, said San Jose police officer Albert Morales.

One of the injured victims was a Walmart employee.

The assailant, described as a man in his 30s, was tackled and tied up by bystanders, according to one shopper who did not want her name used. Police said the driver was arrested and receiving treatment at a local hospital. Morales said his injuries were not life-threatening.

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The person suffering serious injuries and three others who sustained lesser, non-life-threatening injuries, were transported to a local hospital, Morales said.

Sharon Kaye of San Jose was still feeling shaken on Sunday afternoon after her car was sideswiped by the Cutlass. She said the driver first hit a car near the parking lot entrance, then struck her 2009 Honda CRV as she was waiting in it near the front of the store to turn into a parking aisle. The Cutlass then raced up and down other parking aisles, again approaching her car head-on.

"Oh, my goodness, he's going to hurt someone," Kaye said she thought to herself as she turned from confused to frightened.

The speeding car drove over collision debris, passing her car on the right. It did another turn around the parking lot, then came from behind Kaye's car, drove between cement pylons on the walkway and tried unsuccessfully to veer into the glass doors at the store entrance, she said. When the turn proved to be too acute, Kaye said, the driver backed up and came at the doors from a wider angle and plowed through them and the door frames.

"I stood there shocked," she said. "It was very scary." She told the first arriving police officer that he needed to call for backup.

One shopper said the weapon used by the driver to attack people inside the store appeared to be a metal bar.

"People were running out of the store, people were crying, people were just confused about what was going on," Morales said.

Shopper Tianna Doan of San Jose said a Walmart cashier was struck and suffered a head injury. She also said shoppers were trying to take the driver out of the car and hold him down.

The store was evacuated and closed for several hours, Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg said.

"We're obviously very concerned about the associate who was injured," Lundberg said.

Kaye, an opera singer and voice teacher, said although her car lost its bumper, sustained other damage and had to be towed, she is grateful she was not seriously injured. She had just attended Easter services and left church early to pick up ingredients to make scalloped potatoes for Easter dinner.